


Tattered Heartbeats

by RavenShira



Series: The One-armed Ninja, the Heartless & a Scarecrow [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Don't copy to another site, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Nohara Rin Lives, Not Really Character Death, Rin Nohara POV, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenShira/pseuds/RavenShira
Summary: Rin hadn't wanted to die, but she wanted to be the cause of Konoha's destruction even less. That's why she had jumped in front of Kakashi's attack, knowing full well that her actions were cruel, but necessary. He wouldn't follow through, and she was running out of time. Death was painful, but quick. A crackle of electricity ripping through her before numbness encompassed her body like a heavy blanket. She wanted to apologize. The last she saw was Kakashi's horrified expression, his usual detached countenance breaking open and revealing a terrible hurt that she had caused and wouldn't be able to help heal. Nohara Rin died with a lot of regrets.She never expected to wake up again.





	Tattered Heartbeats

_Don't._

_Don't think._

_Don't think, just act._

_Don't think, just act and it will be over quickly._

_Don't._

_ **Think.** _

She hadn't wanted to think about it. She had acted, before she could follow the trail of thought to the end, overthink it and back out of her decision. She couldn't return home like this, yet something pushed her on, urging her to return to Konoha on quick feet. But she was a medic and as such aware of her own chakra in ways normal shinobi often weren't trained to. She had to know how to regulate her chakra with pinpoint precision, or she would do more harm than good. She knew her chakra, knew it like a friend, a lover, intimately, sometimes more than her ever-changing body. She could feel the miasma of a different chakra writhing deep inside her, the seal barely caging the beast that was ripping her apart from the inside out. Could feel the little thread of another chakra wrapped around her heart like a band of iron, tugging and pulling until it felt like it would get pulled right out of her chest if she didn't follow.

Rin hadn't wanted to die, but she wanted to be the cause of Konoha's destruction even less. That's why her feet moved before she could think through what was happening, why she jumped in between Kakashi and their enemy, timing it _**just so**_, so he wouldn't be able to redirect his attack. He wouldn't follow through otherwise, and she was running out of time. Electricity crashed through her body, lightning up every nerve in fireworks of pain_agonyhu__rt__**torture**_.

Her moth fell open in a silent, gurgling scream, blood bubbling up, drowning her even as she tried to apologize, to muster the energy of a smile like** he **had in his last moments. She couldn't. She couldn't seem to figure out which muscles did what and her body was quickly turning to stone, cold and heavy and unresponsitive to her will.

“Kkka-ka-shi-” She wanted to apologize, for using him this way. Regret and guilt clutched at the empty spot where her heart was supposed to be, bare seconds before numbness encompassed her body like a heavy blanket, dragging her down until all that was holding her up was Kakashi's shaking arm. Darkness encroached on her vision, her last view filled with Kakashi's horrified, breaking expression, his usual detached countenance tearing open and revealing the terrible hurt that she had caused and wouldn't be able to help heal. That he would have to live with for the rest of his life. She was cruel, due to necessity but it wasn't like she had to live with the repercussions of her actions.

_Sorry. I'm sorry. So, so sorry-_

Nohara Rin died with a lot of regrets, hear heart torn beyond repair by the person she loved and admired. The one person she knew beyond a shadow of doubt had only meant to protect her.

/♥-/♥\\-♥\

Regaining conscience afterwards had not been what she thought would happen. She wasn't sure what would happen after death. If you really reunited with your family, or if you were swallowed up by nature, to return her energy to the cycle called life. If her soul would perish and reform, or if death was simply her cheesing to exist. She had been prepared for every possibility, but waking up again had not been one of them. As a medic she knew that nothing should have been able to save her, yet she didn't think that being dead would make her feel like a herd of deer had trampled over her several times. It wouldn't leave her with a body heavy and a head stuffed full of cotton, pain still lingering and making her limbs shake as if lightning was still rattling her nerves.

She felt weak. Weak, and tired and confused. She shivered on the ground, staring at the blurry sky with tears pooling in her eyes. Slowly she turned her head, unsure as to what to expect.

She choked on the muffled scream when it wasn't an enemy, or even Kakashi but-

“O-ob- Obito?!” Even her voice broke over the name, rough and small as her eyes hungrily trailed over the scars marring his face, the smile still lingering on his face. She didn't even notice that she had rolled to her side until she had crawled close enough to touch, to make sure that this was real. Thankfully he was almost right next to her. She was barely conscious, and she wasn't sure if it actually was real or a... a hallucination her mind conjured at her last moments, but she couldn't imagine how her brain could make this up. Not this battered version of her friend, barely stitched together with patches of white and-

She thought she was going to be sick when she saw the torn off arm and blood steadily tickling from the horrifying wound. Frantic and probably in shock, her hands automatically fell to the wound, her vision swimming as she tried to reach for her chakra.

It didn't matter who he was. If it was Obito's evil twin they had never met, or... or an enemy playing to be her friend or hell, even a clone or something equally ridiculous. As long as there was a chance that she could save him – that this time_ she_ might be able to save him – she would do everything she could.

Even draw on the last bit of chakra in her system.

She sobbed. The green light flared up at her hands, flickering and weak, like a candle in a storm a moment before it was going to be snuffed out.

In the peripheral of her vision she saw her other teammate sprawled motionless on bloody ground and felt herself go cold, tears trailing down her cheeks. Kakashi was lying face down in his own blood, specks of red and muddy brown matting his usually lichen-coloured hair. It was cruel, making her decide. To prioritise one over the other. She just didn't have enough to heal them both. She probably didn't even have enough for one. Her hands shook, her vision slowly darkening with every second that passed with her hands pressed against Obito's shoulder.

Kakashi or Obito? Who to tend to? Who could she save? Choking on her sobs, Rin concentrated on the shoulder in front of her. She doubted she would have the strength to even crawl to Kakashi, let alone heal him. There was so much blood. So much that Rin didn't know whom it used to belong to. Herself maybe? Kakashi? Obito? The enemies that were strewn around them like broken puppets?

This was a nightmare. This was a nightmare. A nightmare she would wake up from. Any moment now she would wake up. They had to be okay. She would save them this time. Even as her vision started to tunnel she continued to push out her chakra, only the barest tickle that she could convert into healing chakra and it was steadily getting weaker as her vision darkened. She could save them. She just had to finish Obito and then she would...

She would...

she _could_...

_ please..._

/♥-/♥\\-♥\

Waking up for a third time was weird. Her face was mashed into warmth, sticky with dried tears, blood and mud. Right next to her was Obito, motionless and for a moment in which Rin fell still, barely daring to breath, she thought he was dead. Again.

Only the slow rise and fall, weak as it was, finally convinced her otherwise. She shuddered, a sob coming from her unbidden and flinching when a hand carded through her hair. Her eyes shot up, meeting Kakashi's mismatched tired ones.

“K-kak-” her hands reached out, gripping the first limb she could reach, which happened to be his arms and clinging to it like a lifetime. He was okay. He was okay. He wasn't dead because of her weakness. He was okay and they were _all alive_.

“D-d-do y-you _see??_” Her eyes flicked back to the unconscious boy next to her, her voice trembling and her body shivering like a leaf. She could barely take her eyes off him, fearing that if she just didn't look for a moment he would disappear like a mirage. That this miracle was something her mind had conjured in her last moments.

“I do.” Kakashi replied lowly, his hand carefully and gently squeezing hers. His tone was... strangely flat, calm even as he gazed with slightly glazed eyes at Obito's unconscious body, before quickly looking away as if it pained him to stare at their lost teammate for too long. Rin could understand. It was hard to look at Obito's injured form, and yet she could see that someone – most likely Kakashi himself - had carefully rearranged both her and Obito. It was only then that she noticed that both their heads were resting on Kakashi's legs, his back ramrod straight and gaze flickering off into the distance every now and then, alert and guarding.

Something bothered her, niggled at the back of her mind at Kakashi's behaviour, but her attention was entirely devoured by Obito, her other hand shakily reaching out to touch, confirm and reassure that he was here with them. That he was solid and not a figment of her imagination.

He was warm. Pale and with laboured breath but alive and breathing.

“How... how is this possible?” Rin whispered to herself as much as to Kakashi. She had been sure that Obito had died. If she hadn't been sure that the cave in would have killed him, the blood loss, the damage of having half his body crushed, she would never have left him behind. She knew Kakashi felt the same. He wouldn't have left Obito's side. Maybe if she hadn't been there, if he hadn't promised Obito, he would have stayed to dig him out, even with enemies closing in on him from all sides.

Whatever happened to save Obito, Rin was grateful. Whatever happened had produced a miracle, one that she had been incapable of and not even Tsunade, the most talented healer of her village would have been able to do anything for him.

Whatever had happened though, it had saved Obito. Rin's eyes tracked his body, running it up and down and lingering at the ripped clothing that showed the strangely mismatched skin. He had lost some colour, probably from the time of his rehabilitation and lack of outdoor time, but his skin was still sun-kissed and provided a stark contrast to the creamy white skin that seemed to replace most of his crushed side.

He was real. And Rin could still hardly believe it.

“We have to move...” she finally sighed, her body aching and weak. She wasn't sure if she was even able to, and Obito obviously wasn't in a state to move on his own. But staying here was too risky, not with all the dead bodies, the scent of blood so strong in the air that any shinobi with slightly raised senses would be able to smell it from miles away. They were in no condition to continue fighting and if backup arrived...

“Do we?” Kakashi asked, his unnervingly blank eyes snapping down to her from where he had scanned the tree-line again.

“Yes.” Rin regretfully decided. She would much rather just stay lying down, one hand clutched around Obito's wrist, monitoring his pulse and with her head in Kakashi's lap, but they were alive and Rin really, really wanted to stay that way.

Especially now that the weird chakra in her body had disappeared and she mostly felt like herself again. There was no power forcing her to get back home, no additional presence.

Just her chakra, dangerously low and her aching weak body.

“Time to go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Part two of The one armed ninja, the heartless & a scarecrow! 
> 
> Rin's back! Obito is back!! They are all alive so far :D
> 
> Guess whose POV is coming next?


End file.
